So I had a gross ingrown toenail. Yes, I am telling you for a reason. It got bad, and lets just say I needed to go to the doctor. My school's website lists doctors offices near school, so I called the one closest to us that was opened on Sunday (8am-12pm, 7pm-9pm, odd). It was walk-in only, costs S$28 to visit plus the cost of whatever treatment I needed. We were required to buy group health insurance through the school. I read the pamphlet and it was for hospitalizations, surgeries, and death. It did not cover these kinds of doctors visits. So, Alma and I headed out for a run around the mall until 7pm and we came to the doctors office. There was a line outside the door starting a couple minutes before it opened. Everyone walked inside and got a queue number. There was only one doctor in the day (they had 2 at that clinic) since it was Sunday. They rang a bell telling you who was up and which room to go in. The four people ahead of me went by in less than 15 minutes. At my turn, I went into a regular clinic room and sat down next to a desk with the doctor. I learned he had spent lots of time in the US, so he had a good American accent (lots of Singaporeans have a British accent, as this was a British colony). He told me a part of the nail had to be removed and I said okay let's do it. 6 shots of local anesthetic and about 3 tools later, my toe was better. It needed to be rapped in gauze and tape, and I look like I have a mummy toe, but it was better. It still hurts though :( He gave me a RX for pain/swelling (non narcotics). It came to a total of S$89. This was pretty impressive, as my RX, and 2 bottles of anesthetic with the gauze rapping was only S$60 for no insurance. Good job Singapore!
Afterwards, Alma and I decided to grab some food at the mall so I could take my pain meds. I had gotten a recommendation for this Indian restraint in the mall, a sit down place, so we decided to sit down. It was a very authentic place, we were the only non-Indians in the restraint. I ordered naan (tortilla-like bread) stuffed with chicken and onions and Alma ordered chicken in this sauce. The waiter, after already rolling his eyes at us for not knowing what we wanted to eat after sitting down for 3 minutes, kind of laughed at both of us. He told Alma she was ordering just a sauce and needed bread or rice or something to go with her meal, she ordered plain naan. He told me that even though it said stuffed naan, (I was thinking quesadilla style) that I needed a sauce, and he recommended their medium spicy chicken curry. I also ordered tea, as my allergies are back and my throat hurts.
Everyone around us was mainly eating with their hands. Not just the bread or chicken, but like rice. Chinmay told us southern Indians eat with their hands (right hand only). It is still strange for me to see people eating like this, since I'm just not used to it. Alma told me when she was in Honduras doing a home stay for a couple weeks, they ate with their hands there too. Then my tea came (see FB photo). The tea came in this small sauce dish, and inside the sauce dish was a miniature tin cup that was about 3 inches tall. It was sitting inside the liquid with liquid with it to. We laughed, I had NO idea what to do with it. Do I pour it in my water glass? Am I supposed to get another mug? We asked the waiter who laughed at us. You pour the liquid back and forth from the dish to the mini cup to mix it and then drink it out of the mini cup with the extra liquid still in the dish. It was a great meal though!
The doctor was not the first person who thought I was Australian. I understand that unless you are a native English speaker, it is hard to pick up the British/American/Aussie accent, just as most Americans cannot pick up the different Chinese dialects or Spanish accents. I'm still a bit confused though, I have no met many Australians here, even thought my contact is limited to the foreigners at the various universities. Americans and Aussies dress similarly, as Europeans usually stand out next to Americans from their clothing. I still have yet to figure out why people have just jumped to Aussie....
There are these baby shoes that drive me nuts. I have never seen them in the US, but I am also not a mother. They are for toddlers, and when you step, they make this dog toy squeaky sounds. When the babies run, you hear this obnoxious quick squeak. Alma said she's heard a baby running over the MRT noise at a station before. It reminds me of getting a bell for a cats collar so you know when they are silently wandering around, up to no good. We ran into a few at the mall today.
The majority of people speak Singlish here. Its Chinese (Sing-) with English (-lish). They have their own phrases, which sound like butchered English to me, and have other little twerks. 'La' is one, at the end of Singlish
No comments:
Post a Comment